Debate over who should pay for sidewalk repairs

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U-T Letter writers

Re “Why San Diego’s sidewalk policy is unfair to taxpayers” (Jan. 6): I disagree with David Alvarez’s letter stating the city sidewalk policy is unfair. The sidewalk in front of my house was being raised up approximately six inches, but I did not “automatically blame the city” for its negligence. The culprit (a large tree) was clearly on my property.

Most of the sidewalk damage talked about is probably coming from trees, shrubs, etc., that are on private property. Why should all city residents have to pay for this type of damage caused by private homeowners?

Did I like spending the money to have a contractor remove the damaged sidewalk, chop off the tree roots and replace the sidewalk? No, but it’s my responsibility. If you can’t afford to make repairs to a house or its property, you probably shouldn’t be owning a house. Renting is cheaper and you don’t have one-tenth of the financial responsibility of a homeowner.

Cliff Knight

San Diego

Re “Why San Diego’s sidewalk policy is unfair to taxpayers” (Jan. 6): As a new resident of San Diego I was appalled to read that our taxes do not cover sidewalk maintenance and repair. As an engineer working most of all of my career for local government in Virginia we had a yearly budgeted amount in our capital improvement program to repair and replace broken sidewalks.

Funds were allocated and a plan put in place to repair sections of sidewalk based on age and need. For small sections that provided tripping hazards residents could submit work orders and city crews would replace those sections on an on-going basis.

The cost to complete this work is so insignificant compared to other public works projects and costs. Many of us pay a significant amount of taxes and to depend on homeowners to fix sidewalks is ludicrous.